(c)iStock.com/DenisTangneyJr

Millions of General Motors (GM) car owners will be able to connect and interact with their favourite brands with the help of OnStar Go. The OnStar Go is auto industry’s first cognitive mobility platform developed by GM and IBM amalgamating their respective technological platforms – Onstar and Watson.

OnStar is GM’s subsidiary that provides subscription-based communications, in-vehicle security, hands-free calling, turn-by-turn navigation, and remote diagnostics systems, while IBM Watson is a technology platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data.

OnStar Go will help deliver personalised content through the dashboard and other digital channels supported by the OnStar Go ecosystem to make the most of time spent in the car. With the customer’s consent, Watson will learn the driver’s preferences, apply machine learning and sift through data to recognise patterns in their decisions and habits. This information will allow brand and marketing professionals working with IBM and OnStar to deliver individualized location-based interactions that directly impact their target audiences. Companies in retail, fuel, hospitality, media and entertainment, restaurants and travel and transportation and more can use OnStar Go to build individualised mobile, in-vehicle experiences for a growing population of connected drivers that opt-in.

The partnership between GM and IBM will expand the existing OnStar AtYourService offers and deals platform by launching new capabilities supported by OnStar Go with IBM Watson. These capabilities will be available in more than two million 4G LTE connected vehicles and millions of GM vehicle brand app-enabled mobile devices in the US by the end of 2017.

ExxonMobil, Glympse, iHeartRadio, Mastercard and Parkopedia are the first brands to join the platform, while GM expects to have 12 million OnStar connected vehicles on the road worldwide by the end of 2016.

The cognitive mobility platform was designed and developed by IBM iX in conjunction with OnStar, using iX’s expertise in experience and mobile design. iX is also working with GM to design OnStar’s intuitive, touch screen interfaces for consumers on the go. The Weather Company, an IBM Company, will provide rich weather and location data to support personalised targeting and warnings about driving conditions.